Saskatchewan election issues 2016: Privatization

An MRI machine is seen at a clinic in Calgary Thursday November 28, 2002. Dr. Alan Moody suggests scientists are missing a chance to see the big picture when it comes to medical images. Moody says images like X-rays, MRIs and CT-scans could provide a treasure trove of information if they were systematically studied.Adrian Wyld / The Canadian Press

Over the past few years, Saskatchewan has inched ever slowly toward more private services.

From fee-pay MRIs to prison food, more private liquor stores and the use of consultants, the Saskatchewan Party hasn’t been shy in embracing the notion of privatization, but the jury is out on whether or not it’s good for the province. Emma Graney takes a look at how it might matter to voters on April 4.

What’s happening

In the home of free health care, where socialist ideals were historically entrenched, the notion of privatization has had a tendency to rankle in Saskatchewan. But there’s no question the province has looked more toward privatization over the past few years — take the government’s position on private liquor stores, the expansion of private clinics taking fee-pay MRIs, contracting out jail food to a private company, and embracing public-private partnerships (P3s). When the Sask. Party took power, it also pledged to cut the public service. It has done so by looking more and more to outside consultants, something with which the provincial auditor has taken issue, and one at which the NDP have repeatedly taken aim.

Why it matters

This really depends on who you speak with; there seems to be no grey area. The government says the part-privatization of MRIs will help reduce wait times, critics call it the slow erosion of public health care. The government maintains privatizing liquor sales is what the people of the province have asked for, critics say it will result in the loss of jobs and millions of dollars in government revenue. As for P3s, Sask. Party candidate Gordon Wyant, who served as the minister for SaskBuilds, has said repeatedly his party would continue using P3s “where it makes sense.” The Sask. Party government hasn’t signalled its intention to sell off any huge Crown corporations.

What the experts say

University of Regina political scientist Jim Farney has “trouble seeing privatization as a dominant issue” of this election. It will certainly play into the conversation, he says, but he points to Brad Wall’s promise some years ago that if the government wanted to sell off a large Crown corporation like SaskTel, the Sask. Party would run on it as a campaign platform. So far, that conversation hasn’t happened, and privatization has been limited to odds and sods like MRIs and liquor retailing. Referencing an attitudinal survey taken by University of Saskatchewan professor Loleen Berdahl just after the 2011 election, Farney also wonders whether Saskatchewan voters are as staunchly opposed to privatization as they once were. That survey examined Saskatchewan people’s attitudes to a range of privatization issues — surprisingly, the notion of having ” some private hospitals in Saskatchewan” resulted in a 43/44 per cent split. Thanks to in-migration and a general shift in societal values, Farney says, “Saskatchewan looks a bit more like Alberta now.” Yes, he says, the Sask. Party running an election on a massive privatization platform would be “a gamble,” but it’s less clear that it would be a losing tactic. Fellow political scientist Ken Rasmussen agrees that’s the case “in good times,” but, he says, “once the economy starts to sputter, I think people may reset their thinking.” Privatization has “always been a hot-button issue for the NDP,” Rasmussen says, that the party often “pushes during the election” to try and tap into voters’ “residual fears” about losing Crowns.

How it will factor into the election

Before the campaign even started, the Saskatchewan Government and General Employees Union had ads on TV and online criticizing the government’s plans to further privatize liquor sales in the province, and the anti-privatization sentiment has only continued. The day the writ dropped, NDP Leader Cam Broten pledged to scrap SaskBuilds (the “privatization ministry,” as he dubbed it) and P3s. It has already voiced its opposition to sweeping liquor retailing changes announced in November; at the time, the Sask. Party government said those plans would form part of its election campaign. A Mainstreet poll released last week puts support for a key part of that plan — privatizing 40 SLGA liquor stores across the province — at a close split of 33 per cent for and 29 against (with another 38 per cent not sure).

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